Trusted strangers: Carework platforms’ cultural entrepreneurship in the on-demand economy

Abstract

On-demand labor platforms offer many in-person services, from ride-hailing to childcare. However, scholars have focused on ride-hailing, leading to a model of “Uberization” that entails the informalization of work. We argue that online carework platforms that match nannies and babysitters to families show the limits of this narrative. Based on a discourse analysis of carework platforms and interviews with workers using them, we illustrate that these platforms seek to formalize employment relationships through technologies that increase visibility. We argue that carework platforms are “cultural entrepreneurs” that create and maintain cultural distinctions between populations of workers, and institutionalize those distinctions into platform features. Ultimately, the visibility created by platforms does not realize the formalization of employment relationships, but does serve the interests of platform companies and clients and exacerbate existing inequalities for workers. As one of the first analyses of carework platforms, this study also points to gendered bias in the scholarly literature about the on-demand economy.

The Outsourcing of Online Dating: Investigating the Lived Experiences of Online Dating Assistants Working in the Contemporary Gig Economy

“…Instead, all client communications were handled by the Account Managers, who served as middlemen between ODAs and clients. This setup resonates with the idea of gig worker "invisibility" (De Stefano, 2015;Ticona & Mateescu, 2018) and provides an extreme example of invisibility. Aside from the Account Manager, all other ODAs were expected to perform their work efficiently but quietly, remaining invisible to both the client and other (unsuspecting) daters.…”

The organisation and experience of work in the gig economy

“…This is because social media platforms can support the display of relevant and rich information about gig workers (Carr et al, 2017), thus supporting the signalling of skills and knowledge (Chan, 2019). They also serve a function in identity verification and matching (Ticona and Mateescu, 2018). Professional freelancers and other gig workers already use social media as support for 'self-branding' (Ticona and Mateescu, 2018)…”

The Rating Game: The Discipline of Uber’s User-Generated Ratings

“…Put simply, the rules of the rating game vary across different labor platforms, based on platform-specific policies and affordances. For example, care work platforms may make the reputational metrics of workers visible to potential clients (Ticona and Mateescu 2018), whereas Uber passengers cannot see a specific driver's rating before a ride. Thus, we may observe various kinds of platform surveillance and workers' reactive practices, though there is a proliferation of rating systems across on-demand labor platforms.…”